Orca Capital back in business

One of the heaviest hitters in Oregon’s investment banking community is officially back in business.

Last year, Norm Duffett announced he would relaunch Orca Capital. This week, Duffett said Orca Capital now has its broker-dealer license from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, meaning it can engage in investment banking transactions such as raising capital.

Until now, Duffett has limited his work at Orca Capital to consulting projects.

Duffett plans to work with businesses, primarily from Oregon and Washington, that are too small to interest D.A. Davidson and other large investment banks. His typical client will have $3 million to $5 million in annual sales.

Duffett is one of the most high-profile investment bankers in Oregon. He’s raised more than $2 billion for companies over a 25-year career.

One of his career highlights was bringing together a group of investors that bought Salt Lake City-based LANDesk Software Inc. for $40 million and sold it a few years later for $400 million.

Multnomah County deposits

$1.2 million in local banks

Multnomah County this week followed through on a plan to deposit money in local banks. On Thursday, the county made $245,000 deposits in each of five Oregon banks.

The deposits are part of a program — called the Community Advantage Banking Program — that will steer up to $10 million in deposits to 16 banks. Each deposit will be less than the $250,000 federal limit on deposit insurance.

The program is designed to boost small business lending.

“We still have a lot of need in the community,” said Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen. “This is an innovative way to use assets to address those challenges.”

The five banks that received deposits Thursday:

• The Commerce Bank of Oregon.

• Northwest Resource Federal Credit Union.

• Capital Pacific Bank.

• Advantis Credit Union.

• Unitus Community Credit Union.

The county approved the program in November. At the time, the county said it would start investing in banks by Jan. 1.

The money is currently deposited at banks not headquartered in Oregon.

At any time the county has around $40 million in its various savings accounts.

Last year the city of Beaverton deposited $1.7 million in local banks.

A new report suggests that Multnomah County doesn’t spend its mental health services money as well as it could.

The City Club of Portland, in a report issued March 31, suggested that the county negotiate tighter contracts with providers, develop more transparent budgets and better evaluate how well patients do under providers’ care.

“Unless (the county’s Mental Health and Addiction Services Division) makes the quality of patient care central to its mission and rigorously monitors the outcomes of its efforts, it will not provide the mentally ill with the help they need or the community with the quality of service that it deserves,” a City Club committee wrote.

City Club began exploring the county’s mental health systems after several instances indicated the quality of care is “fractured.”

For instance, when Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare, the county’s largest mental health care provider, became insolvent in 2008, Multnomah officials themselves grew concerned as to how well the system operated.

The City Club committee’s recommendations include:

• Developing a transparent, accessible and understandable budget.

• Making it easier to determine costs of patient care, trace the origins and flow of money through the system and gauge how well the system works.

• Negotiate contracts that clarify providers’ terms of service and enforce the county’s compliance standards.

• Establish patient outcome data that can be easily assessed by all mental health services providers.

City Club’s membership must vote on whether to accept the committee’s report and use it to formally call for changes. The vote takes place April 8.